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Brian Whittle, the former Olympic athlete, was so sure he was not about to become an MSP that he was asleep at home when his election was confirmed.

He was still getting over the shock as he joined a photo call for the 31 Conservative MSPs returned to the Scottish Parliament last week following a major revival in Tory fortunes.

The double European Championship gold medallist, who also competed in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, was fifth on his regional list – the system that sees 56 of the 129 Holyrood MSPs elected by proportional representation - in a position unlikely to bring success.

But when three colleagues ahead of him, Oliver Mundell, Finlay Carson and John Scott, confounded the pollsters and won their constituency seats in the South of Scotland, he found himself becoming an MSP.

Mr Whittle said he had been up for around 24 hours when he went home at 6.30am, adding: “I put the television on but I fell asleep. About half an hour later Finlay Carson texted me to say, are you paying attention? To paraphrase my response, I said something like, ‘Leave me alone I’m sleeping’.

“He said you really need to pay attention, and I‘m thinking we’ve got somebody else in on the list, who is it? Then Finlay said: ‘What if I told you it was an Olympic athlete?’

“When it came on the television I just sat and stared at it, and then my phone went absolutely bananas. I went to my default position, put my running kit on and went for a run in the woods, then realised my legs were absolutely wrecked because I had been standing for 24 hours.”

Mr Whittle, one of 24 first time Tory MSPs, said his initial thought was to wonder what he was going to do about the fact he is a director of two online companies and also coaches athletics,

The former runner, who won gold medals in the 4 X 400 relay in the 1986 and 1994 European Championships, admitted: “I didn’t stand specifically to get in, that wasn’t my raison d’etre. I stood because I wanted to put the real health agenda on the table. My catchphrase is ‘education is the solution to health and welfare’. I stood on that just hoping to get that discussion going.”

Rachael Hamilton MSP, who was third on the same regional list, said she would now have to leave the running of the Buccleuch Arms Hotel in St Boswells to her husband and daughter.

Miles Briggs and Rachael Hamilton take a selfie on Tuesday Credit:
Jeff J Mitchell/Getty

She believes the “Ruth factor was huge” in propelling the Conservatives into second place, adding: “I got in a taxi this morning and the taxi driver said he voted Conservative for the first time ever and he said he hoped we stuck to our word and held the SNP to account. I said absolutely, we are a big, bold team and we are all up for a challenge. You can’t take away the fact we absolutely worked our butts off.”

Annie Wells, a single mother raised in a working class family in the east end of Glasgow, where the SNP enjoyed a clean sweep of constituency seats, admitted: “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I was going to be elected”.

The former Marks & Spencer manager in Dumbarton – she quit her job on Monday – added: “We absolutely believed in Ruth and what she was saying, you could see the passion. It was also to do with the fact that people were getting us this time and we were giving them the right message.”

Another working class Tory in the Ruth Davidson mould, she only joined the party after getting involved with Better Together during the independence referendum.

It all adds up, according to Miles Briggs, who was returned on the Lothian list and said everyone was “feeling the buzz”, to a major opportunity to “put ourselves back in the game in Scotland”.